That One Bridge
by Ynnealay
Summary: Ever wonder how why the bridge at the beginning of Wind Waker got broken? Well, here's the story. Set a month and a half before Wind Waker. One-shot. *Small spoilers at the end*


**Hello, Ynnealay here. I am still working on Little Red Gem, but my sister was playing Wind Waker the other day and this plot idea just stuck. One-shot. Enjoy.**

* * *

As usual, it was a sunny day on Outset Island. The sun was shining brightly on the island, keeping it the perfect temperature to be outside and fluffy white clouds hung in the perfect blue sky, the waves lapped against the soft white sand. The small populations of inhabitants were peacefully living their lives; none of them even noticed the blond boy asleep on one of the rocks by the shore.

The boy on the rocks was fast asleep, having fallen asleep listening to the lapping of the waves on the sand. In his hand he held a green leather covered book, with gold letters spelling the title: _The_ _Ocarina of Time_. It was this boy's favorite story, it told about the hero of time, and he had been reading it in the sun until he had dozed off. His dreams were pleasant, dreaming about his birthday, a month and a half away.

A little blonde girl who looked immensely like the young boy asleep on the rocks sprang out of a nearby house and nearly ran past the rocks, when she turned and saw the boy asleep.

"Big brother!" She said excitedly, running up to him. He blinked his eyes sleepily and muttered something.

"Go away. I'm sleeping." He told her.

"Link!" She whined, "Liiiiiink! Get up!" Link opened his eyes and gave an annoyed groan, he would never be able to get back to sleep with her screaming in his ear.

"Okay, Aryll!" He said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes, "This better be good. What!?" Aryll smiled widely.

"Guess."

"No." Link said quite unexcitingly.

"_Fine._" Aryll sighed, "But you can be so boring sometimes. Grandma just told me a story!" She smiled like there was more, but Link just stared at her unresponsively, still annoyed that she had woke him up.

"That's _great_, Aryll." Link said sarcastically.

"No, Link, there's more!" Link's little sister went on excitedly, "She said that the forest up there-" Aryll pointed to the top of Outset's tallest mountain, where a dense forest grew, "-Used to have fairies in it. That's why it's called the Forest of Fairies!"

"How long did it take to figure _that_ out _genius_!? I figured that out awhile ago _without_ Grandma's story." Link said. Aryll's face fell and Link sighed, now he was going to have to make her feel better or else she would go to Grandma and he would be in trouble for upsetting her.

"Look, I'm sorry. What did you want?" Link said, trying to resolve things. Aryll's eyes brightened at this and she cheerfully said;

"I want to go see if we can find some fairies in the forest. Can you take me?" She asked. Link looked at her surprised. She _knew_ they weren't allowed in the forest at the top of the mountain, but he wanted her to admit it- Aryll wasn't one to break the rules.

"Why don't you get Grandma to take you? Or go in alone?" He asked. Aryll rolled her eyes and replied quietly,

"You know it's against the rules, so Grandma would never take me. And, I'm, um, too scared to go alone." Aryll looked down shamefully at the dirt. Link only smiled.

"Well, little sis, looks like I'm finally starting to rub off on you. What did I tell you? Breaking the rules isn't _all_ bad." Link said rather loud.

"Link! Shh! someone will hear you! Now are we going, or not?" Aryll looked worried, but Link could tell she was just hiding a mischievous smile.

"Of course we're going! C'mon!" Link said, and he playfully jumped off the rock he was sitting on, leaving his book behind. There were no thieves on Outset Island; it would be safe until he came back. Aryll hung back a bit, but Link's call got her running.

"Aryll!" Link called, "This was your idea! Are you coming!?" Aryll, bit her lip, but nodded quickly and ran after her brother, laughing as they raced across the lower bridge.

* * *

The only way to the Forest of Fairies was an old dirt path that cut into the mountainside of the eastern island. As they go higher up, the wind picked up and it got colder.

"C'mon Aryll, we're getting close to the top!" Link said and he started to run, forcing Aryll to run as well to keep up.

"Wait! Link!" Aryll called, "How do _you_ know we're close to the top!?" Link stopped and waited for Aryll to catch up. As she came up the path, she pointed to the ground.

"Watch for that ditch in the dirt." He commanded, and Aryll looked down just in time not to trip over the little ditch.

"How did you know that was there?" She asked when she had reached Link "Have you been up here before?" They had reached the top now and Link nodded enthusiastically.

"Of course I've been up here before, Aryll." Link said in a tone that suggested she should've known. Link's gaze strayed to a raised ledge with a single rock and a tree. Link loved to come up to that little raised ledge to be alone, he was even thinking of building a tree fort up here, but the problem was, he couldn't find any wood.

"Link!" Aryll said, and Link smiled at her.

"C'mon, this way!" Link said, pointing to a rickety old suspension bridge. On the other side of the bridge was the Forest of Fairies.

"We have to cross _that_!?" Aryll shouted seeing the suspension bridge sway back and forth dangerously.

"Oh, stop being so scared, look-" Link said, running onto the bridge, "It's _fine_!" Aryll must have _really_ wanted to see the Forest of Fairies because she tentatively stepped onto the bridge, and then seeing it wasn't going to collapse under his feet, she ran up to Link, who was standing in the middle.

"See, look, it didn't kill you." Link said, "Now-" but Link didn't finish his sentence because he spotted a loose rope by his feet. "Hey, a loose board." He said happily, he thought he could use it in his tree house, and if it was already loose, he would be doing no harm to the bridge. He bent to pick it up, but Aryll worriedly looked at the board that link had grabbed by the sides.

"Link, I don't think that's a loose board…" Aryll said. Link ignored her however and kept pulling. Aryll hurried on, running the rest of the length of the bridge, not wanting to be anywhere near Link and the 'loose board'.

"This…has to be…LOOSE!" Link said as the board came loose. As it turned out, the board was not loose previously and he just tore up a section of the bridge. The ropes binding said board snapped back and hit Link's hand.

"OW!" Link exclaimed and he fell back hard, making the bridge sway. Aryll felt the swaying of the bridge and she lost her balance, falling sideways off the bridge and left dangling by two hands.

"Aryll!" Link exclaimed, "Hold on! I'm coming!" He got up and dashed forward, tripping over the board he had just pulled out and he sprawled forward, vibrating the bridge more.

"Big Brother!" Aryll screamed, losing one of her hands. Link narrowly avoided falling through the one board gap and got to Aryll. He held his hand down and managed to pull her up. She was just sitting on the bridge boards with Link breathing heavily and trying to calm down, when a sudden gust of wind came and made the bridge sway worse than ever before.

"Link!" Aryll exclaimed and she grabbed onto Link's arm in a death grip.

"C'mon Aryll, we're not crossing the rest of this thing." Link said, getting up and walking back, very carefully. Very stupidly then, Link forgot about the hole in the bridge and tripped on it again. He fell _again_ onto the board across from him that was closer to safety and the force of his fall shattered the second board and it fell with a splash into the water, but he got to the other side safely.

"Okay, Aryll, now you jump across." He called to her. Aryll timidly walked up to the bridge gap and stared at Link obviously scared.

"Go on, jump!" Link coaxed,

"Link, I'm scared."

"Just jump!"

"O-okay."

Her jump was pitiful and she fell short, ending up dangling from the bridge again.

"Hold on!" Link said and he held his hand down again. "Grab my hand." Aryll let go of the wood with one hand, but slipped farther down. She let out a loud scream.

"Aryll! Shut up, someone will hear you and we'll be caught!" Link said urgently

"I don't care! I'm gonna die!" Aryll screamed again. Link then spotted what he thought to be a loose rope and he started to untie it, intending to lower it down for his sister.

"Link! That's the rope holding my board up!" Aryll told him. He let go of the rope a moment too late and one side of the board dropped. Aryll screamed some more.

"Hold on!" Link said again.

"Just save me!" Aryll said. Link took off his shirt and lowered it down as a rope and Aryll held on to the sleeve. The threads started to rip, but Link managed to pull her up. Just as she was safe, the whole sleeve of Link's shirt ripped off.

"Run!" Link said, pulling her off the bridge. Once they were off the bridge, Link put his shirt on one-sleeved.

"We're safe…" He breathed, hugging his little sister close.

"Thank you, Link…" Aryll said.

"Let's go back down." Link said, "Before we get caught. We speak of this to no one. Agreed?" Aryll nodded numbly and hurried down the path with Link.

* * *

The next day, Link stood by the entrance to the mountain path, slightly guilty to find trees planted to block the way and a sign that read:

_NO ENTRY_

_The forest paths are closed until suspension bridge repairs are complete _

Aryll came up behind him, surprising him.

"You're not thinking of cutting down those trees and trying to cross that bridge again, are you?" Aryll said. Link turned to her.

"Aryll, _please_, the likely hood of me crossing that bridge again are about as slim as me meeting a pirate, owning a talking boat, finding a hidden underwater kingdom and then doing battle with a giant puppet." Link said. Aryll laughed at such an idea.

"Where'd you get that idea?"Aryll asked, still giggling. Link shrugged.

"Meh." He replied.


End file.
